25 April 2009

Just Another Week

I thought I had finally broken the back of the TAFE work, I'd knocked off a really hard, long module, and could feel enthusiasm returning. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...

Went out to the campus and handed in the module, with the expectation of being able to pick up a new module to kick on with. No such luck. With school holidays, all the teachers were on holidays, and unfortunately no-one else authorised to release modules in their absence. I had a little grumble - being a distance ed student means that I'm generally not limited by school holidays etc, and not having kids, I'm usually pretty oblivious to the holiday dates. Not a huge deal, but it's left me a week without any work to do. A simple email a couple of weeks beforehand to the distance ed students should remind them of upcoming holidays, and the need to stockpile modules if need be.

Last Sat night saw the first of our nighttime MTB club races. I love night riding, but it really exposes the weaknesses in my technical skills. What really makes for an interesting 20km of singletrack is when you go to turn your lights on, and realise one of your batteries is stone dead flat. Eediot me for not checking - lesson learned! End result was a mid pack result in C grade, I should have been able to do a bit better than that. I sensed a little sandbagging going on, quite a few B grade level riders dropping back to C, even one or two A graders. There is a fine line between having people out for an enjoyable ride, and deliberately coming out just to prop up your points tally for the series. But hell, it's only a social race really, so I'm not that worked up about it.

Not a good night for cats in our neighbourhood last Sun night either. We popped over to the neighbours briefly, and as we walked out of their place, back home, a black cat that has been hanging around ran across the road in front of us. It managed to dodge the car heading one way, and turned around to run back, then getting clipped by the car running the other way. Unfortunately seriously injured and very, very mad. I managed to get it into a cat carrier, with the aid of a towel, thick gardening gloves, and a cardboard box, and get it up to the vet. Unfortunately poor moggie had a broken pelvis, no collar and no microchip. The vet managed to stabilise it for the night, on the off chance the owners (who were as yet unknown) came looking for it in the morning.

Well Els and I went and doorknocked the street and found the owners. The cat belonged to their young son, who had just received him as a birthday present. End result is that the moggie didn't make it. Pretty tough. My biggest fear for my dogs is them getting run over, and to see it happen in front of me, and then have to deal with the consequences, was not great.

Got a couple of rides in this week, including a night ride Wed night, with a group of club members I normally don't ride with. They certainly move a bit quicker than I'm used to, so the challenge was good. Had a couple of small offs, no bark lost, but it was a good hit out.

Managed to sneak out for a kayak fish on Thurs. New spot, no fish finder, cold water, no fish. But a good excuse for a paddle.

Weather has now gone to shite, I was hoping for a ride this afternoon but no such luck. Both organised rides have been officially rained out. Maybe a rebel tour tomorrow afternoon.

And to the idiot who left their ute parked out the front of the shop last night, with his two dogs tied up in the ute tray, while we got 20mm rain in 30 minutes, while he went to the pub across the road and sucked piss, you're an absolute f***wit. You don't deserve to own dogs, and if I see you do it again, my response will be a lot less diplomatic than it was this time.